Primochill Wet Bench Review

Primochill Wet Bench Review

If you've ever upgraded your PC or you, like us, are a bit of a tinkerer, then you'll know that it can be a bit tiresome getting at your hardware on a regular basis. This is true even if you have a large PC case, doubly so if your PC is water-cooled, and triply so if your case is small and water-cooled. Serial upgraders aren't the only people to notice this - if you're keen on benchmarking or improving your PC's cooling, then you'll likely either want to do away with a case altogether, or at the very least run your PC with the side panels off.

All told, for us at bit-tech, a benchtable is an essential tool, and we have several floating around in our lab. They're perfect for dropping hardware onto at a moment's notice, and with no cable routing or motherboard trays to contend with, it's far easier to get a system up and running as quickly as possible. That said, there's nothing wrong with running your system off one 24/7 either - yes there's the dust issue but an air duster is an easy way to fix that.

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Primochill is better know for it's water-cooling components such as reservoirs, and is well-respected for its skill in churning out well-made acrylic components.

Well now it has turned its hand to making a benchtable too and the aptly-named Wet Bench could well be what you're looking for if you're into water-cooling and are considering ditching a traditional case.

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It's a completely different beast to Phobya's WaCoolT, which was a hefty 20kg steel beast. The Wet Bench is made entirely using 6-8mm acrylic so it's much lighter although perhaps more delicate as a result. That said, we're talking about the main supports being nearly a centimetre thick, so they'd possibly even survive a drop kitted out with a full set of hardware.

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Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Wet Bench is that it comes in customisable colours. We chose a red and black model, while a quick look at our US supplier, Performance PCs, shows over 30 different colours and combinations including translucent acrylic too.

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The flat-pack arrival is fairly daunting but it's the only way to ship products like this. Thankfully, every section of acrylic - even the small locking pins - were covered in protective film, so much so that it took a good half an hour to remove it all. However, the result is that every piece of acrylic was immaculate and all were well-cut too with no sharp edges.

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Slotting everything together is fairly straightforward and is tool-free too, with the vast majority of the sections being held together by protruding joins that are pinned in position from the other side. A couple turned out to be a bit loose but with dozens of the things slotting in firmly the case was sturdy enough, although still had the usual acrylic wobble that you'll get from any acrylic case - nothing to be too concerned about.

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Included are two momentary push-buttons that feature screw-down wire clamps - no soldering or complicated wiring here, although you can of course use your own. These slot into any one of several 19mm holes located in adjustable mounts at the edges of the benchtable that also sport smaller 16mm holes. These are of course the same size as 3/8in and 1/2in tubing so you can easily route this neatly through the holes so not to have it flailing everywhere.